Published every Three Months. Sponsored
by an International Group of Theosophists.
Objectives: To uphold and promote the Original Principles of the modern
Theosophical Movement, and to disseminate the teachings of the Esoteric
Philosophy as set
forth by H.P. Blavatsky and her Teachers.
Editor: Boris de Zirkoff.
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Make checks and money orders payable to "Theosophia."

None of the organized Theosophical Societies, as such, are responsible
for any ideas expressed in this magazine, unless contained in an official
document. The Editor is responsible for unsigned articles only.

*

THOUGHTS TO REMEMBER ...

Among a number of documents released by the U.S. government in connection
with its Bicentennial is a letter of a century ago from an American Indian
Chief to the President of the U.S.A. (Quoted in The Hindu of Madras).
It is timely in its content. Asked to sell their land, he wrote:

"Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining
pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing,
and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people
... We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion
of the land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who
comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth
is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves
on ... His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert
... The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the red man ... There
is no quiet place in the white man's cities. No place to hear the leaves
of Spring or the rustle of insect wings." - Reported by Radha S.
Burnier, The Theosophist, August, 1976. [3]

*

"KEEP THE LINK UNBROKEN ..."Boris de Zirkoff

[Reprinted by request from an earlier issue.]

The modern Theosophical Movement has passed through many a crisis, and
will undoubtedly pass through many more.

It has survived organized onslaughts from without, and perfidious treachery
from within.

With every changing cycle and with every crisis, its teachings have
spread in ever-widening circles throughout humanity.

The Theosophical Movement, considered in its outwardly manifested form,
is a living, organic entity. T he strengthening of its sinews and the
growth of its outward stature are subject to the natural processes of
periodic purification, and the elimination of accumulated dross. Such
periods are invariably of a regenerative kind, and result in ultimate
good for the Cause which it represents.

This Movement presents a cross-section of the world; therefore also
a cross-section of the world's troubles and problems, the presence of
which within the Movement testifies to the universality of its intrinsic
nature, and to the bonds of human fellowship which bind it to the great
family of the human race.

Therefore, no crisis within the organized aspect of the Movement should
ever be met with down-heartedness, discouragement or perplexity. The
clash of human wills is a definite sign of vitality and growth; and wherever
such clash occurs, there can be no stagnation. The latter alone is a
sure sign of decay, senescence and death.

At times of change and readjustment, it is of imperative importance
to remind ourselves of certain basic factors regarding the nature of
the Theosophical Movement and its character.

The foremost characteristic of the Movement as a whole is its absolute
Universality. This fundamental key-note precludes any parochialism or
sectarian spirit from ever being considered as genuinely Theosophical.

Organized Theosophical bodies or Societies are but temporary forms,
outward vehicles, for the manifestation of a portion of the Movement
in any particular cycle or era. As such, they have their beginning and
their ultimate ending, only to be followed by other vehicles and forms
embodying a greater degree of knowledge, and better suited to the changing
conditions of life.

As pointed out by William Q. Judge (The Path, Aug., 1895), organized
Theosophical bodies "are made by men for their better co-operation,
but, being mere outer shells they must change from time to time as human
defects come out, as the times change, and as the great underlying spiritual
movement compels such alterations."

Sectarianism, and intellectual as well as moral limitations, are bound
to creep into any Theosophical body, owing to the imperfections of [3] human
character. But the healthy spirit of Universality, underlying the Movement
as a whole, sooner or later drives them out, cleansing the atmosphere
with the invigorating "Wind of the Spirit."

The best and surest protection against the rise of sectarianism and
intolerance within the organized Theosophical bodies is to remember at
all times that our allegiance, as students of Theosophy, is to Principles, not
to personalities, however exalted or venerated. We work for a Cause which
is utterly Universal. Remembering the Master's sound advice to Col. Olcott
to work for Humanity through the Theosophical Society, we will
remain free of all those inevitable misconceptions which come from a
confusion of motives, when a student imagines that he or she is working
for a society, or for a Leader, or for the Masters themselves. No genuine
student ever does. The sole and unique objective which can never disappoint
is the impersonal and utterly universal Cause in which all personalities,
including the exalted ones of the Masters themselves, sink into relative
insignificance, and are viewed only as channels for a Work transcending
them all.

We should keep in our minds a clear distinction between
Theosophy as a teaching of Truth and the adherents to that teaching.
The one is infallible and universal. The others are but imperfect exponents
of a small portion of that Truth which they express in a necessarily
limited and inadequate way. Their weaknesses and shortcomings do not
reflect in the least upon the majesty of Theosophy as a philosophy of
life, Confusion along these lines has resulted only too often in uncalled
for disappointment and heartache.

If the modern Theosophical society, with its various organizational
sub-divisions, is viewed as a mere exoteric body for the promotion of
an intellectual philosophy, or even a code of ethical laws, its main
character and objective will be lost sight of. The entire modern Theosophical
effort, launched by the Masters through the instrumentality of the original
Founders, was an attempt to re-open in the Occident a Mystery-School
for the training of students in occultism. The opening of the era of "Western
Occultism" was pointed out by Judge in one of his writings. And
unless the Movement in its modern form be considered as such, its outward
destinies and vicissitudes will make but little sense to the casual observer.

Therefore, genuine Theosophical groups, derived from the original or
parent society, as well as the parent Society itself in the time of H.P.
Blavatsky, can and should be considered as disciples on probation,
perennially tested as to their spiritual and moral worth, through the
trials of life, its wide-spread changes and deep-seated reactions, and
the complex array of ever-shifting Karmic circumstances.

This all-important fact may be verified by a glance at the history of
the modern Theosophical Society. It is indicated in the formation since
1888 of an Esoteric School within the exoteric Society, and is plainly [5] shown
in the very pattern or blueprint on which the original Society was organized
at the specific suggestion of the Masters themselves. According to this
pattern, an exoteric official - Col. Henry S. Olcott - was to be in charge
of all outward organizational activities and problems, while an esoteric
teacher - H.P. Blavatsky - was to be responsible for all matters pertaining
to the occult aspect of the Movement, its teachings and spiritual discipline.

In a Letter addressed to Col. H.S. Olcott, and precipitated by occult
means on board the S.S. Shannon, during Olcott's voyage from India
to Europe in August, 1888, Master K.H. states:

"... To help you in your present perplexity: H.P.B. has next to
no concern with administrative details, and should be kept clear of them,
so far as her strong nature can be controlled. But this you must tell
to all: - with occult matters she has everything to do. We have not abandoned
her. She is not given over to chelas. She is our direct agent ... you
will have two things to consider - the external and administrative, and
the internal and psychical. Keep the former under your control and that
of your most prudent associates, jointly; leave the latter to her. You
are left to devise the practical details with your usual ingenuity. Only
be careful, I say, to discriminate when some emergent interference of
hers in practical affairs is referred to you on appeal, between that
which is merely exoteric in origin and effects, and that which beginning
on the practical tends to beget consequences on the spiritual plane.
As to the former you are the best judge, as to the latter, she." (Letters
from the Masters of the Wisdom, I, 52-55.)

The underlying reason for the above is easy to detect. The Teachers
desired to organize the modern Theosophical Society on a pattern similar
to the one used traditionally in their own School, seeing that the Society
was to be an extension of said School in the outer world.

The same pattern was followed by one of the very few genuine occult
schools - Tibetan Lamaism, wherein the Dali-Lama at Lhasa was the exoteric
authority over state matters and the official business of the country,
and the Tashi-Lama at Shigatse, called the "Great Jew of Wisdom," was
the spiritual authority.

Similarly, the Eleusinian occult school had its basileus or Hierophant
belonging to the inner mysteries, and its archons presiding over
organizational forms. It is rather obvious from the study of Jewish Scriptures
in the light of the Ancient Wisdom that the "Prophets" played
the same role in the mystery-schools of the Jewish race, and were what
might be called the Interpreters of the Inner Vision.

These and similar instances which might be picked from other sources
are, it should be remembered, but a natural replica of the structure
of the Universe itself, wherein the Hierarchy of Builders is at
all times informed by the Hierarchy of what [6] might be termed
the Architects, the latter, as their very name implies, being
the transmitters and channels of the Original Ideation underlying
the entire manifestation.

The facts mentioned above regarding the original pattern of the Movement
should have become by now familiar to every student. Unfortunately they
have not. This has given rise to much needless confusion. It is only
the inherent weaknesses of all organized Theosophical bodies, and the
lack of adequate individuals, which has prevented this pattern from being
carried out in later periods of the Society's history, wherein outward
authority and inner occult guidance had to be combined in the same individual.
It should be distinctly noted that this was a make-shift arrangement.
It is to be hoped that the future history of the modern Theosophical
Movement will see the return to the original pattern or blueprint according
to which the Teachers desired the Work to be carried out.

It would only be natural to suppose that all schools of esoteric discipline
and instruction, in whatever land or race, have had periods of inner
strength and periods of temporary weakness, when stresses and tensions,
brought about by the inherent flaws in human character, weakened for
the time being the tensile strength of that mystic connection with the
prime-source of all occult knowledge which H.P. Blavatsky so graphically
termed the "Link." Apart from any outward manifestation in
the actual presence of a living Teacher, such a "link" is a
mystic reality within the disciple himself. While greatly helped and
sustained by the Teacher, it does not solely depend upon him. It is primarily
the student's own inner awareness of spiritual realities; his own ability
to rise above the illusions of material existence and synchronize his
human consciousness with the vibratory rate of a Higher Consciousness;
his capacity to make himself a relatively open channel for the transmission
of a Force flowing from the Occult Hierarchy in which his spiritual consciousness
is rooted.

The outward Teacher does not establish the disciple's own inner "link," though
he stands as its noblest symbol, and facilitates the conditions under
which such individual "links" may be established with grater
ease. I should also be remembered that genuine esoteric Teachers do not
come on their own, looking for possible disciples, but invariably appear
in answer to the individual and collective "call" on the part
of would-be disciples, whose condition of growth and state of consciousness
make the appearance of a Teacher imperative.

The primary condition necessary for the establishment and the perpetuation
of the inner "link" within the disciple's own consciousness,
is a life devoted to the spiritual interests of others, wherein one's
own personal advancement, even advancement in spiritual knowledge or
attainment, becomes secondary as compared with the existing need for
spiritual help in the world at large, and the [7] disciple's endeavor
to meet as much of this need as his capacities and abilities permit him
to do at any one time. Given this condition of self-forgetfulness in
the service of others, the forging of the mystic "link" with
the Brotherhood of Adepts becomes immeasurably easier than it would be
under any other circumstances. With the absence, total or partial, of
this paramount condition, all intellectual learning, all individual and
collective discipline, all outward reliance upon Teachers, books, mantrams,
and tradition, while doubtless productive of some small good, nevertheless
result ultimately but in erecting a superstructure of "spiritual" selfishness,
which precludes any "link" from being established, or sustained
if already previously formed.

All genuine occult work is based upon the corner-stones of fearless
research, unfettered investigations, freedom of spiritual choice, selflessness
of purpose, and the will to press onward, over rough terrain and smooth,
in storm and sunshine, through adversity and success, towards the Gates
of Gold.

When this is realized, the reported last words of H.P. Blavatsky yield
an ever-deepening meaning:

"Keep the link unbroken! Do not let my last incarnation be a failure."

*

SOME WORDS ON DAILY LIFE(Written by a Master of Wisdom)

[Originally published in Lucifer, Vol.
I, January, 1888, pp. 344-46. No information is available about the circumstances
of the origin of this communication - Editor, Theosophia.]

"It is divine philosophy alone, the spiritual and psychic blending
of man with nature, which, by revealing the fundamental truths that lie
hidden under the objects of sense and perception, can promote a spirit
of unity and harmony in spite of the great diversities of conflicting
creeds. Theosophy, therefore, expects and demands from the Fellows of
the Society a great mutual toleration and charity for each other’s
shortcomings, ungrudging mutual help in search for truths in every department
of nature, moral and physical. And this ethical standard must be unflinchingly
applied to daily life.

"Theosophy should not represent merely a collection of moral verities,
a bundle of metaphysical ethics, epitomized in theoretical dissertations.
Theosophy must be made practical; and it has, therefore, to be
disencumbered of useless digressions, in the sense of desultory orations
and fine talk. Let every Theosophist only do his duty, that which he
can and ought to do, and very soon the sum of human misery within and
around the areas of every Branch of you Society, will be found visibly [8] diminished.
Forget SELF in working for others - and the task will become an easy
and light one for you ...

"Do not set your pride in the appreciation and acknowledgment of
that work by others. Why should any member of the Theosophical Society,
striving to become a Theosophist, put any value upon his neighbors’ good
or bad opinion of himself and his work, so long as he himself knows it
to be useful and beneficent to other people? Human praise and enthusiasm
are short-lived at best; the laugh of the scoffer and the condemnation
of the indifferent looker-on are sure to follow, and generally to out-weigh
the admiring praise of the friendly. Do not despise the opinion of the
world, nor provoke it uselessly to unjust criticism. Remain rather as
indifferent to the abuse as to the praise of those who can never know
you as you really are, and who ought, therefore, to find you unmoved
by either, and ever placing the approval or condemnation of your own Inner
Self higher than that of the multitudes.

"Those of you who would know yourselves in the spirit of truth,
learn to live alone even amidst the great crowds which may sometimes
surround you. Seek communion and intercourse only with the God within
your own soul; heed only the praise or blame of that deity which can
never be separated from your true self, as it is verily that
God itself; called the HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS. Put without delay your
good intentions into practice, never leaving a single one to remain only
an intention - expecting, meanwhile, neither reward nor even acknowledgment
for the good you may have done. Reward and acknowledgment are in yourself
and inseparable from you, as it is you Inner Self alone which can appreciate
them at their true degree and value. For each one of you contains within
the precincts of his inner tabernacle the Supreme Court - prosecutor,
defense, jury and judge - whose sentence is the only one without appeal;
since none can know you better than you do yourself when once you have
learned to judge that Self by the never wavering light of the inner divinity
- your higher consciousness. Let therefore, the masses, which can never
know your true selves, condemn your outer selves according to their own
false lights ...

"The majority of the public Areopagus is generally composed of
self-appointed judges, who have never made a permanent deity of any idol
save their own personalities - their lower selves; for those who try
in their walk in life, to follow their inner light will never
be found judging, far less condemning, those weaker than themselves.
What does it matter then, whether the former condemn or praise, whether
they humble you or exalt you on a pinnacle? They will never comprehend
you one way or the other. They may make an idol of you, so long as they
imagine you a faithful mirror of themselves on the pedestal or altar
which they have reared for you, and while you amuse or benefit them.
You cannot expect to be anything for them but a temporary fetish,
succeeding another fetish [9] just overthrown, and followed in
your turn by another idol. Let, therefore, those who have created that
idol destroy it whenever they life, casting it down with as little cause
as they had for setting it up. Your western Society can no more live
without its Khalif of an hour than it can worship one for any longer
period; and whenever it breaks an idol and then besmears it with mud,
it is not the model, but the disfigured image created by its own foul
fancy and which it has endowed with its own vices, that Society dethrones
and breaks.

"Theosophy can only find objective expression in an all-bracing
code of life, thoroughly impregnated with the spirit of mutual tolerance,
charity, and brotherly love. Its Society as a body, has a task before
it which, unless performed with the utmost discretion, will cause the
world of the indifferent and the selfish to rise up in arms against it.
Theosophy has to fight intolerance, prejudice, ignorance, and selfishness,
hidden under the mantle of hypocrisy. It has to throw all the light it
can from the torch of Truth, with which its servants are entrusted. It
must do this without fear or hesitation, dreading neither reproof nor
condemnation. Theosophy, through its mouthpiece, the Society, has to
tell the TRUTH to the very face of LIE; to beard the tiger in its den,
without thought or fear of evil consequences, and to set at defiance
calumny and threats. As an Association, it has not only the right,
but the duty to uncloak vice and do its best to redress wrongs, whether
through the voice of its chosen lecturers or the printed word of its
journals and publications - making its accusations, however, as impersonal
as possible. But its Fellows, or Members, have individually no
such right. Its followers have, first of all, to set the example of a
firmly outlined and as firmly applied morality before they obtain the
right to point out, even in a spirit of kindness, the absence of a like
ethic unity and singleness of purpose in other associations or individual.
No Theosophist should blame a brother, whether within or outside of the
association; neither may he throw a slur upon another’s actions
or denounce him, lest he himself lose the right to be considered a Theosophist.
For, as such, he has to turn away his gaze from the imperfections of
his neighbor, and center rather his attention upon his own shortcomings,
in order to correct them and become wiser. Let him not show the disparity
between claim and action in another, but, whether in the case of a brother,
a neighbor, or simply a fellow man, let him rather ever help one weaker
than himself on the arduous walk of life.

"The problem of true Theosophy and its great mission are, first,
the working out of clear unequivocal conceptions of ethic ideas and duties,
such as shall best and most fully satisfy the right and altruistic feelings
in men; and second, the modeling of these conceptions for their adaptation
into such forms of daily life, as shall offer a field where they may
be applied with most equitableness. [10]

"Such is the common work placed before all who
are willing to act on these principles. It is a laborious task, and will
require strenuous and persevering exertion; but it must lead you insensibly
to progress, and leave you no room for any selfish aspirations outside
the limits traced ... Do not grudge personally in unbrotherly comparison
between the task accomplished by yourself and the work left undone by
your neighbors or brothers. In the fields of Theosophy none is held
to weed out a larger plot of ground than his strength and capacity will
permit him.
Do not be too severe on the merits or demerits of one who seeks admission
among your ranks, as the truth about the actual state of the inner man
can only be known to Karma, and can be dealt with justly by that all-seeing
LAW alone. Even the simple presence among you of a well-intentioned and
sympathizing individual may help you magnetically ... You are the free
volunteer workers on the fields of Truth, and as such must leave no obstruction
on the paths leading to that field.

*

The degree of success or failure are the landmarks the masters have
to follow, as they will constitute the barriers placed with your own
hands between yourselves and those whom you have asked to be your teachers.
The nearer your approach to the goal contemplated - the shorter the distance
between the student and the Masters.

*

MIND AND THE HUMAN BATTLEGROUNDVonda Urban

Just stop for a minute and think of it! A word once spoken can never
be recalled from echoing eternity; an unleashed emotion troubles the
waters of infinitude with turbulent waves that reach no shore; a deed
of action or inaction is recorded forever in the imperishable records
of time immemorial; an opportunity lost passes by never to smile again
though other chances may abound. But this is more than something merely
to think about! It is something to do about; for everything that we think,
feel and consequently say or do is determined and executed in our mind;
and only if we are able to control the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde lurking
there can we direct the course of our actions with intelligence, reason
and purpose.

Thought, will and feeling are inherent qualities of consciousness which
flow from the monadic core of our Divinity, streaming from it as a "Pillar
of Light" throughout our sevenfold constitution. This is the Sutratman,
the Thread-Self linking the Divine, the Spiritual and the Intellectual
centers into an unbroken chain of consciousness which is [11] Universal
in our Divine Self, Spiritual in our Higher Self, and has reached to
Individualized Self-consciousness in our intermediate, human self. But
we are not yet fully self-conscious in the present stage of human unfoldment.
Our imperfectly evolved intermediate nature is divided against itself,
meeting, as it does, between heaven and earth, in the animal man; and
we are only vaguely beginning to sense the oneness of all life; only
dimly aware that our dual nature is an inseparable part of the Universal
All in which our mind soars upward on the wings of spirit, or remains
the slave of earth, chained to the appetites of our senses; we are only
barely responsive to the responsibility of duty, justice, compassion,
self-abnegation, and therefore are not yet able to see that Brotherhood
is a fact in nature based upon the interaction and interdependence of
everything with all that is.

The human ego, centered in the brain-mind, perceives through the lower
Self-consciousness of the personality in which the self reflects upon
self through the "I am I" egoism that is self-seeking and selfish.
We see ourselves to be different from every other self, out of which
arises a feeling of separateness that is called the "Great Heresy." This
is but an illusion of our mind when purblind vision through the senses
cannot see the oneness in all that lives, and so we cut ourselves off
from our fellows. Yet the brain-mind is the only link with our Higher
Self, and through it we must raise our personal consciousness to ever
higher reaches of our Sutratman, eventually merging our human
selfhood with its higher counterpart, Spiritual consciousness. It is
in living in the material world that we rise out of it, which can only
be done by lifting our mind above its attachment to the senses. When
personality begins to vanish into individuality, when "I am I" begins
to cognize "I am," when egotism surrenders to altruism, when
self-seeking gives way to self-forgetfulness, then our humanhood is beginning
to reach outward to the Universe; then our mind is becoming pervious
to the Spiritual Light.

Consciousness continues eternally in an unbroken sequence throughout
the active and recessive periods of life and death. It is continually
changing - growing or diminishing as our thoughts, will and feelings
set the course. Thus we become whatever our mind dwells on, the thoughts
growing into habits, the habits becoming our character and our character
shaping the pattern of our Karmic necessity and conditioning the after
death states of consciousness. When we finally and fully realize that
the only enduring results from all our strivings throughout life are
garnered solely from the spiritual efforts made, it must make a difference
in how we live!

"The 'harvest of life' consists of the finest spiritual ideations,
of the [12] memory of the noblest and most unselfish deeds of
the personality, and the constant presence during its bliss after death
of all those it loved with divine, spiritual devotion. Remember the teaching:
the human soul, lower Manas, is the only and direct mediator between
the personality and the divine Ego. That which goes to make up on this
earth the personality (miscalled by us individuality) is
the sum of all its mental, physical and spiritual characteristic traits,
which, being impressed on tile human soul, produces the man. Now, of
all these characteristics it is the purified ideations alone which can
be impressed on the higher, immortal Ego. This is done by the 'human
soul' merging again, in its essence, into its parent source, commingling
with its divine Ego during life, and reuniting itself entirely with it
after the death of the physical man. Therefore unless Kama-Manas transmits
to Buddhi-Manas such personal ideations, and such consciousness of its
'I' as can be assimilated by the divine EGO, nothing of that 'I' or personality
can survive in the Eternal. Only that which is worthy of the immortal
God within us, and identical in its nature with the divine quintessence,
can survive; for in this case it is its own, the divine Ego's, 'shadows'
or emanations which ascend to it and are indrawn by it into itself again,
to become once more part of its own Essence. No noble thought, no grand
aspiration, desire, or divine immortal love, can come into the brain
of the man of clay and settle there, except as a direct emanation from
the higher to, and through, the lower Ego; all the rest, intellectual
as it may seem, proceeds from the shadow, the lower mind,
in its association and commingling with Kama, and passes away and disappears
forever. But the mental and spiritual ideations of the personal 'I' return
to it, as parts of the Ego's essence, and can never fade out ... There
is no distinct or separate immortality for the men of earth outside of
the Ego which informed them ...

"Nor can anything endure of that which lives and breathes and has
its being in the seething waves of the world, or plane of differentiation.
Thus, Buddhi and Manas being both primordial rays of the One Flame -
the former the vehicle (upadhi or vahana), of the one eternal Essence,
the latter the vehicle of Mahat or Divine ideation (Maha-Buddhi in the Puranas),
the Universal Intelligent Soul - neither of them, as such, can become
extinct or be annihilated, either in essence or consciousness. But the
physical personality with its Linga-sarira, and the animal soul with
its Kama, can and do become so. They are born in the realm of illusion,
and must vanish like a fleecy cloud from the blue and eternal sky ...

"... We (i.e., our personalities) become immortal by the
mere fact of our thinking moral nature being grafted on our divine triune
monad (Atma-Buddhi-Manas), the three in one and one in three (aspects).
For the Monad manifested on earth by the incarnating Ego is that which
is called the Tree of Life [13] Eternal, that can only be approached
by eating the fruit of Knowledge, the Knowledge of Good and Evil, or
of the GNOSIS, Divine Wisdom."

Just think of it! Every day of our life our Higher Self and our animal
self confront each other on the battleground of our mind and one of them
wins the balance of choices made. We stand at the threshold of the Hierarchy
of Compassion, the critical step from which we reach upward to the flowering
of our humanhood - or fall downward, lost in the alluring illusion of
Terra; and in those struggling moments of the balance up or down, we
can hear the sacred Voice of the Silence warning us: "Thou
shalt not let thy senses make a playground of thy mind"!

*

THE HARMONIES OF HEAVENDara Eklund

A Taoist poet, Su-K'ung Tu, expressed a way one might flee from this
world without going anywhere; he thought:

"When emotions crowd upon me,
I will leave them to the harmonies of heaven."

The word heaven has been synonimous with "harmony" for
a score of ages. The Greeks upheld an ardor for the Music of the Spheres
realizing those retreats of our finer nature to which cultivated Silence
invites Divine Messengers, "Remain silent in the presence of the
divine ones," taught Plato: "till they remove the clouds from
thy eyes and enable thee to see by the light which issues from themselves,
not what appears as good to thee, but what is intrinsically good."

During the "Golden Age," those Greeks protected their "god-taught" when
young. The Pythian oracles informed the father of Pythagoras of a wise
son he was to bear - a soul enshrined by divine inspiration. His father
did not hide the child from this heritage, but provided him with the
best teachers, nurturing him within the world, but sending him away from
political tyranny when it threatened to interfere with his studies.

Today our nations, which educate primarily for material well-being,
would judge this to be cowardly. Our students are taught to be involved
politically. They do not fathom the remote recesses of the soul which
enabled the ancient Chinese to state that there could be no harmony in
the State without the individual first achieving it. Whatever Pythagoras
was able to garner from his studies abroad he eventually used to benefit
the State through reform. However, he did not return to teach in Samos
until about 56 years of age. He had spent 22 of those years in Egypt
and even went to Babylon to study with the Magi. At first, his symbolic
teaching methods did not appeal to the Samians, and he obtained only
one pupil. Yet, he was not discouraged by this fact, [14] as some
of us are today when we find that few people are willing to take the
time for Theosophical study and place it above all else in their lives.
He must have known the tide would change, or a new influx of heavenly
descent would supplant the scepticism of the past. Philosophy became
so popular that Pythagoras drew students from all over Greece, until
the citizenry became so demanding of his services that he was again involved
in political issues and administration. To free himself for the perfection
of his School, he headed for Italy - to Crotona - and upon arrival acquired
about 600 followers.* (* Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras, translated
by Thomas Taylor. Original ed., 1818. Repr., 1926, 1965.) What would
we not give today for so many lovers of wisdom who were willing to throw
their material goods together towards the pursuit of Truth!

High aspiration, it has been said, is the best nutrition for the "emotional
body." Did not Aristotle, so prodigious and exact in learning, yet
see that "Wonder is the beginning of philosophy"? Essentially
the philosopher knows he must abstract himself from the sway of the emotional
world most people would prefer to swim and to drown in.

To cultivate this aspiration in modern society means less worldly involvement:
less television and commercialized living! The "Harmonies of Heaven," are
not to be found on these hard pavements our feet must walk. It has to
be embodied into our daily lives by diligent attention. At work, we must
refrain from argument or indulgence in petty complaints or gossip, which
occupy most of our well-meaning associates and drain so much time and
energy. We must acquire the safety of silence and speak forth only in
defense of the helpless or wronged.

Seng Ts'an, the 3rd patriarch of China, wrote of another way to retreat
from the disharmonies of outer life:

"If the One Mind does not stir
Then all things will be harmless.
Things that are harmless cease to be,
Mind that stirs not, does not exist."

These are meditative skills which help build the Buddhic Consciousness
and one day produce the Harmonies of Heaven here on Earth.

*

HAPPY NEW YEAR

We sincerely thank all our friends and subscribers for the many kind
messages received from them during the Christmas season, and warmly reciprocate
them. May the opening year of 1977 bring its all renewed opportunities
to spread the ancient teachings and to serve our fellow-men! - Editor, Theosophia. [15]

*

THEOSOPHICALW. Emmett Small

Yes, it's the adjective theosophical (or theosophic),
and we want to say a few words about it. The word already is in some
dictionaries, evidence that it has already begun to be accepted into
the language of the day as useful and needed because reflecting the "feeling" of
the time.

Fundamentally its introduction reflects a significant change in today's
values. It points to a shift away, at least in some areas, from stark
materialism to a realization of finer and more subtle forces at work
in the universe. In this general sense, and looking back over the past
century and choosing a few poetic voices as example, we may rightly speak
of Emerson's theosophic ideas based on the Over-Soul; of Traherne's theosophic
view of nature reflecting a spiritual background as a mirror of infinite
beauty; of Shelley's pantheistic theosophic portrayal of the divine in
everything; of Browning's theosophic concept of truth imprisoned within
each of us, needing only to be released, let out. All these are right
uses of the word.

And in this sense it would not be difficult also to quite correctly
trace theosophic influence in certain areas of the philosophy of Paul
Tillich, in the Catholic scientist de Nouy, and in the Jesuit anthropologist-priest
de Chardin, to name only a few. The word theosophic will be found
more and more to be a useful word-tool designating certain distinct attitudes
of today. There will be seen to be a natural cross-over of the old orthodox
rigid divisions between religion, philosophy, and science. Forerunners
of this were the views expressed by Eddington and Jeans and Schrodinger
and Stromberg in the 1920's, as basically religious as scientific or
philosophical - in other words thoroughly theosophical.

There will be growing evidence of this as the present
cycle matures, and ready minds and hearts will recognize that theosophic
thinkers encircle the globe and give expression in their own individual
ways to thoughts seen as fundamentally universal. And this brings us
this philosophical reflection. These thinkers, these awake ones - and
they must now number in the tens of thousands - are tapping that great
Ideative Plane, that storehouse of ideas living in the mental atmosphere,
which H. P. Blavatsky declares is much more than plausible conjecture
but esoteric fact ("The
Religion of the Future", in The Theosophist, IV, May 1883,
pp. 205-06; also Blavatsky: Collected Writings, IV, pp. 451-53.).
Her words have vital interest for us all. She says:

"Occultism teaches us that ideas based upon fundamental truths
move in the eternity in a circle, revolving around and filling the space
within the circuit of the limits allotted to our globe and the planetary
or solar system; that, not unlike Plato's eternal, immutable essences,
they pervade the sensible world, permeating the [16] world of
thought; and, that contrary to chemical affinities, they are attracted
to, and assimilated by, homogeneous universals in certain brains - exclusively
the product of human mind, its thoughts and intuition; that in their
perpetual flow they have their periods of intensity and activity, as
their durations of morbid inactivity. During the former, and whenever
a strong impulse is imparted on some given point of the globe to one
of such fundamental truths, and a communion between kindred eternal essences
is strongly established between a philosopher's interior world of reflection
and the exterior plane of ideas, then, cognate brains are affected on
several other points, and identical ideas will be generated and expression
given to them often in almost identical terms."

Fundamental truths. There in two words you have the whole basis
of theosophical philosophy. Is it speaking too rashly to suggest that
what amelioration in world-thought has come about in the last hundred
years is because "cognate brains" have been able to reach to
and to seize from that Ideative Plane, those theosophic universals, those "identical
ideas"? What we owe to H. P. Blavatsky we shall never fully know,
nor to those who were her Teachers, for whom she acted as Messenger.

But as Theosophists we can ask ourselves some questions and perhaps
reflect on responsibilities we either shoulder or shrug off. Are Theosophists,
in their effort to placate or please a still largely unbelieving world,
watering down or even misinterpreting their own doctrines? Is there fear
of stating just what Theosophy is? Is there need to study deeper to come
to really know the teachings? Is, for instance, the real meaning of Brotherhood
recognized, not merely as a kindly and to-be-desired feeling, but as
a bona fide fact inherent in the very structure of the universe?
Do we realize that ethics has a scientific basis and that Theosophy demonstrates
this? Do we know, and put into practice what we know, of the composite
nature of man and all things? The constitution of our Earth-globe and
the invisible globes forming the Earth chain? And what of the after-death
states of consciousness, about which there is much fuzzy thinking?

Our duty seems plain enough and two-fold: (1) to study and to know Theosophy,
to study the doctrines as presented by H.P.B. and her own Teachers and
by those who have faithfully followed and promulgated those same teachings. And
to let the rest go. And (2) to raise high the flag of Theosophy,
speaking out clearly and boldly, and to point to Theosophy as the Source
of all great religions, philosophies and sciences, supporting our statements
with evidence that is sensible, logical, and factually appealing. The
religion of the future - if you wish to call it religion - is Theosophy.
We have a duty to keep it untarnished. In that way we encourage what
is truly theosophical "revolving around and filling the space
within the circuit of the limits allotted to our globe ..."

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